COMMON PARTRIDGE. 107 



in them. The attachment of Partridges to their eggs and 

 young is proverbial. Montagu mentions an instance in 

 which a Partridge, on the point of hatching, was taken, 

 together with her eggs, and carried in a hat to some dis- 

 tance ; she continued to sit, and brought out her young. 

 Mr. Jesse mentions two cases: — "A farmer discovered a 

 Partridge sitting on its eggs in a grass-field. The bird 

 allowed him to pass his hand frequently down its back with- 

 out moving, or showing any fear ; but if he offered to touch 

 the eggs, the poor bird immediately pecked his hand, A 

 gentleman living near Spilsby, in Lincolnshire, was one day 

 riding over his farm and superintending his ploughmen, who 

 were ploughing a piece of fallow land. He saw a Partridge 

 glide off her nest so near the foot of one of his plough- 

 horses, that he thought the eggs must be crushed ; this, 

 however, was not the case ; but he found that the old bird 

 was on the point of hatching, as several of the eggs were 

 beginning to chip. He saw the old bird return to her nest 

 the instant he left the spot. It was evident that the next 

 round of the plough must bury the eggs and the nest in the 

 furrow. His surprise was great when, returning with the 

 plough, he came to the spot, and saw the nest indeed, but 

 the eggs and bird were gone. An idea struck him that she 

 had removed her eggs ; and he found her, before he left the 

 field, sitting under the hedge upon twenty-one eggs, and she 

 brought off nineteen birds. The round of ploughing had 

 occupied about twenty minutes, in which time she, probably 

 assisted by the cock bird, had removed the twenty-one eggs 

 to a distance of about forty yards." 



Incubation with the Partridge lasts twenty-one days, and 

 the great hatching-time in the southern parts of England 

 is from the 20th of June till the end of that month.* Mr. 

 Selby observes, that " as soon as the young are excluded, 

 the male bird joins the covey, and displays equal anxiety 

 with the female for their support and defence. There are 

 few persons conversant with country affairs who have not 



* Abnormal instances of nests containing eggs in January, and young being 

 hatched in February, are on record. 



